The present invention relates to a device for handling solid materials such as hair, to reduce clogging of household sink, tub, and shower drains. More particularly, the present invention relates to a manually operable device for reducing the size of pieces of hair and other solid waste materials to smaller pieces less likely to accumulate and clog a drain.
Drain receptacles for sinks, showers, and bath tubs frequently have strainers and filters covering or sitting in their openings so as to prevent solid materials from entering the drain conduit and clogging it at a downstream location. Such strainers are intended to allow liquid to pass while stopping the solid materials. However, in order for such devices to perform satisfactorily, they must be regularly cleaned, because they are prone to clogging. Cleaning such devices typically requires manually grabbing and removing the bacteria laden obstructing material, which often includes entwined human hair.
Sinks in food preparation areas typically have devices for comminuting solid waste in order to allow its passage into a connected drain without clogging it. These devices are usually electrically powered “garbage disposals” that have little need for manual cleaning and operation, although they require significant space for installation, electrical power for operation, and adequate access for maintenance. These requirements are difficult or impossible to meet in the typical shower, tub, or sink outside the kitchen area.
Previous attempts to provide various manually operable drain strainers, waste traps, and comminuting devices, including comminuting or shearing devices designed to cut human hair, have not been particularly successful.
For example, Gandillon U.S. Pat. No. 1,614,358 describes a manually operated device fitted under a common sink outlet, but the apparatus is prone to clogging, complex, and undesirably large. Comminution of solid material using such device is via manual rotation of a cone about a central axis against fixed blades.
Hammes U.S. Pat. No. 2,012,680 describes an early incarnation of the electric garbage disposal, flushing appropriately comminuted solid material from a grinding chamber by draining liquids through the chamber, and is shown as an under-sink installation.
Frank U.S. Pat. No. 2,479,485 shows a manually operated self-cleaning sink stopper, and addresses manual operation with solid waste straining and cutting functions. However, an initial strainer is included, to keep commonly encountered material from ever reaching a cutting surface and the initial strainer requires manual cleaning of materials trapped at that level. Furthermore, the device is prone to fouling with hair.
Hovartos, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,183,470 describes a garbage disposer that is driven by a water jet. The device requires significant space for installation and maintenance and has a vertically oriented shaft that is prone to fouling with hair. The device does not allow for manual operation when water flow provides insufficient power.
Maynard, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 5,271,571 describes a water driven device for agitating and fragmenting debris in a sink drain. The device includes a hydraulically driven impeller that may also be manually engaged with the strainer basket. However, the central shaft is exposed to solid waste entering the drain, and is, therefore, prone to fouling.
Maynard, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 5,141,166 discloses a device that includes a centrally mounted rotor which rotates within a sink drain. However, the device is actuated by linear strokes of a steeply pitched threaded rod passing through a threaded bore of a rotor, and the threaded rod is exposed to solid waste material and is therefore prone to fouling.
Other devices, such as electric razors that are designed specifically to cut hair, are not easily adapted for use in handling hair caught on sink, tub, or shower drain parts to prevent clogging of those drains. Ochiai, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,549,352 and Szymansky U.S. Pat. No. 5,901,446 describe cutting devices used in common electric shavers, but hair that has caught in sink, tub, or shower drains tends to be unlikely to be oriented so that these devices would be effective.
What is needed, therefore, is a device that is easily mounted in or constructed to fit in the space conventionally available in the strainer bowl or similar initial receptacle portion of a household drain, or constructed to replace such a strainer bowl or similar receptacle, for reducing the size of pieces of hair and other solid waste materials that might otherwise accumulate in and clog a drain conduit from household sink, tub, and shower drains, so as to promote more efficient disposal of the waste through the drain. Such a device should be manually operable with minimal physical effort of the operator, and resistant to clogs without needing frequent cleaning beyond that resulting from the operation of the device.